Michael Vick Has Been Shining At Camp, While Beginning New Contract Talks

I must admit I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve seen so far of Michael Vick at training camp. Last year he got off to a sizzling start during the season and was on his way to an NFL MVP award, but he and the offense were slowed down at the end of the season by constant blitzing of opposing defenses.

A year ago, Vick hadn’t been able to check out of plays at the line of scrimmage vs. blitzes. He had struggled to read the blitz, hesitated in making decision at the line of scrimmage and been unable to get the ball out his hands versus blitzes.

So far at training camp, Vick has done an outstanding job of recognizing the blitz and getting the ball out of his hands. He’s pointed out the blitzer, then made adjustments with the blocking plan and executed the play.

I must give Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg credit for starting the training camp with Vick facing the blitz. They know what they’re going to see from defenses, so it’s been the focus of the practices.

On the first play of the Eagles team drill on Friday morning practice, Vick read the blitz, changed the play at the line of scrimmage and threw a bullet to Jason Avant on an end route to beat Joselio Hanson.

His throws have been very accurate throughout the camp and he’s shown a great touch on his throws. His passes have been on the money with their accuracy while the quarterback has been working without his best two receivers, DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin.

To give you idea of how Vick’s teammates measure him up, check out how Brent Celek described Vick’s play so far this training camp to Reuben Frank of Comcast Sportsnet.:

“He’s picking up everything. The throws he’s having are on point every single time. “I can’t say enough good things about him. He’s really impressed me. He’s even becoming a bigger leader on this team. “Mike wants to be the best quarterback in the league. He’s just keeping his nose down. He’s grinding, working hard. “He wants us to be the best. And you can see it out there. He expects it from the guys, he expects it from himself, “When you’ve got a guy like that – I mean, don’t get me wrong, we’re all going to give it our all, but when you got a guy like that that’s giving it all on every single play, you don’t want to let him down.”

Now we find out that Vick and the Eagles have begun discussions to extend his contract.

“There already has been some discussions to be honest and candid with you,” said Vick. “I’m just hoping that it all works out. I want to be here. I want to play for Andy [Reid] throughout the rest of my career. And we’ll just see how it goes.”

I can understand the Birds deciding to extend Vick’s contract because of the way he’s been performing during training camp and the fact that an extension would open up more salary cap room.